Italy and Turkey will play the opening match of the European Football Championship on Friday. The Dutch national team is back for the first time since 2012. In the period before that, the Orange squad played some memorable games. Today: The Netherlands overtakes world champion Italy in 2008.
The shock in the Netherlands was great when the Orange squad was paired in the group stage of the European Championship 2008 in Austria and Switzerland with the then world champion Italy, losing World Cup finalist France and Romania.
In the run-up to the first match in the ‘group of death’ against Italy, Arjen Robben also got injured. It didn’t bother Orange, because encouraged by tens of thousands of Dutch people, a glorious victory was achieved in Bern.
